NeilWatson

There’s a decent chip shop in Orton Wistow, next to the Tesco Express store. Rather than turn right into the Showground carry on to the next roundabout and take the second exit, the shop is on the right in about 200m.

Although a licensed Promoter at Peterborough I am, like everyone else involved in the Club, a willing volunteer. I offer my time and expertise freely, simply because of my love for the sport.

Ricky’s average doesn’t permit him to guest for Scott away from home.

It’s not that the season tickets were ‘no longer valid’ - they were priced and sold as being valid for the regular season only, which has now ended, with special concessionary pricing for additional meetings.

It’s Neil, and I’m at Peterborough!

PETERBOROUGH are re-focused and ready for the job in hand against Lakeside in the Championship play-offs on Sunday (5pm). The T.Balfe Construction Panthers had expected to be staging the second leg of their semi-final tie, but Saturday’s wet weather put paid to that with the scheduled fixture at Hoddesdon an early casualty. Panthers will now travel to Hertfordshire next Sunday (October 14, 2pm), and will be desperately keen to take a lead with them into that meeting. They have defeated Lakeside in all four of the Hammers’ previous visits to the East of England Arena this season – twice by scores of 52-38, and twice by scores of 46-44! Clearly a result of the order of the former would be far more preferable, and that depends on Panthers providing the race wins to control the in-form Hammers heat-leaders, as well as holding sway in the lower order. Scunthorpe’s Steve Worrall takes the guest booking at No.1 in place of Scott Nicholls, with Jordan Stewart in for Tom Bacon at reserve. Emil Grondal returns to the middle-order, and rider-replacement is again Panthers’ only option to cover for the injured Bradley Wilson-Dean. The Hammers’ side is far more recognisable than their team from last Sunday’s Championship Shield clash, with Zach Watjkencht back from injury whilst Lakeside regulars Ben Morley and Alfie Bowtell – who finished one-two in the National League Riders’ Championship – at reserve. It’s a massive night for Panthers as they bid to keep their title hopes alive having topped the regular-season table, and they are determined to erase the memories of Friday’s KO Cup defeat at Scunthorpe. Start-time is 5pm and Panthers fans are urged to generate a big-match atmosphere as their side looks to continue their 2018 journey. PETERBOROUGH: Steve Worrall, Bradley Wilson-Dean r/r, Emil Grondal, Ulrich Ostergaard, Michael Palm Toft, Jordan Stewart, Simon Lambert. LAKESIDE: Richard Lawson, Zach Wajtknecht, Adam Ellis, Kyle Newman, Nick Morris, Ben Morley, Alfie Bowtell. ENDS

1 If a meeting is abandoned no further track action is permitted - so that wouldn’t have been possible. 2 Miracles we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.....

PETERBOROUGH will continue to battle injury adversary when they start their biggest weekend of the season at Scunthorpe tomorrow (Friday). The T.Balfe Construction Panthers will be without both Bradley Wilson-Dean and Emil Grondal for the KO Cup semi-final first leg against the Scorpions, along with long-term casualties Scott Nicholls and Tom Bacon. Wilson-Dean has not recovered sufficiently from shoulder surgery, whilst Grondal is out with a hand injury although it is hoped he will be fit to face Lakeside in the play-off semi-final on Saturday and Sunday. Promoter Ged Rathbone explained: “Bradley’s surgery was a big success, but he has been left in rather more pain than had been expected. “We had him looked at when he came to our meeting last Sunday, and the verdict was that he’s going to need more time to recover, so we’ll keep on monitoring that over the coming days. “Emil hurt his hand when he fell in his third ride against Lakeside, and he finished the meeting in pain and went to see the paramedic at the end. “He was signed out for a few days so he misses Scunthorpe, and hopefully we’ll have him back on Saturday with Rye House being an easier track to ride.” Panthers will operate rider-replacement for Grondal on Friday with guest bookings being taken by Tero Aarnio, Theo Pijper and Drew Kemp – all of whom have proven records at Scunthorpe this season. Aarnio has racked up scores of 15+2 and 9+1 in visits for Newcastle in 2018, whilst Pijper collected 10+2 for Berwick and 16-year-old Kemp a hugely impressive 12+2 from five rides for Ipswich. The Scorpions, meanwhile, have Kyle Howarth guesting at No.1 as Josh Auty has been ruled out for the remainder of the season after a recent crash at Workington. Rathbone added: “We don’t just look at riders’ averages and select the highest one when it comes to choosing guests. “We’ve hand-picked them based on what they’ve done at Scunthorpe in the past and we’re still confident that we will do enough to still be very much in the tie prior to the second leg.” The return fixture takes place at the East of England Arena on Saturday October 13 (7pm) – whilst this weekend, attention switches to the crucial Championship play-off semi-final against Lakeside with the home match on Sunday at 5pm. SCUNTHORPE: Kyle Howarth, Stefan Nielsen, Jason Garrity, Jake Allen, Steve Worrall, Danny Phillips, Gino Manzares. PETERBOROUGH: Tero Aarnio, Emil Grondal r/r, Theo Pijper, Ulrich Ostergaard, Michael Palm Toft, Simon Lambert, Drew Kemp. ENDS

Maybe the 5% uplift on the home average opens up a different option to those available away?

Absolutely not..... http://www.fim-live.com/en/library/download/71271/no_cache/1/

http://www.scbgb.co.uk/aboutus

Art 18.10.6 : No Rider, whose Team is in the Play-Offs may appear as a Guest in the Play-Offs.

I’m superstitious..... :-) Maybe it was twelve plus one....

RR is the only facility for one missing rider 4 and 5 by MA. The ‘rush to get temporary lighting’ was because it was the right thing to do. Only eleven heats completed, with fourteen still to go and all still to race for in both meetings.

http://www.scbgb.co.uk/regulations Art 18.8: The facility for missing riders 1-3 by MA is a guest or rider replacement.

Not only were we determined to finish the main meeting, we had eleven junior riders here for an MDL challenge match who would have lost the opportunity to ride had the meeting been abandoned.

Totally incorrect. Once a meeting starts it is the referee, and the referee ALONE who can decide to abandon a meeting. As staging Promoter I have no control over that decision.

A great deal of uninformed nonsense posted here tonight. I challenge any other Club faced with a major floodlight failure to be able to install temporary lights (albeit with a delay) and then complete the meeting.

http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/18results/lakeside_15.09.18_res1.pdf

What a strange perspective ...

A facility is available under Art 16.1.5.h - sickness or non-speedway injury.

Bradley doesn’t miss a meeting until this Saturday, we are just now exchanging teams with the opposition so this is the natural point to make the details public.

PETERBOROUGH will be without Bradley Wilson-Dean for this weekend’s Championship Shield semi-final clashes with Lakeside. The New Zealand star goes into hospital on Thursday for a pre-arranged shoulder operation, involving the removal of a plate and nine screws. And the T.Balfe Construction Panthers will be waiting until next week before discovering whether Wilson-Dean can play any further part in their trophy challenge. Promoter Ged Rathbone said: “The club were fully aware when we signed Bradley in mid-season that this operation would be taking place. “We didn’t expect the season to go on anywhere near as long as it has done – certainly, being successful and being in so many competitions has caused some other little problems! “After the operation we will re-assess Bradley next week to see whether it’s a season-ending injury, so we’ll give him a few days’ recovery time first, see how he feels and then go from there. “If he feels up for riding then he’ll continue, but we won’t know that until after the operation. “It’s not a major surgery and there should be no after-effects other than general soreness, so there is a slim possibility that he could carry on racing, and obviously he’s a vital part of the team. “We know it also affects Somerset (in the Premiership), so it’s just a waiting game, and if does turn out to be a season-ending injury then we’ll just dig deep again as we normally do. “I’ve got to stress that Bradley can’t take any blame here, both ourselves and Somerset were fully aware when we both signed him that this was planned, and whilst we have looked at sending him private, it wasn’t really an option within the timescale that we’ve got. We have to accept it and look at things in the middle of next week.” Meanwhile Panthers are also hoping that a further week will help Ulrich Ostergaard get back to speed after his long lay-off. The Dane, recently back from rib injuries, ran a last in his first ride on Sunday but improved thereafter and was involved in a hectic Heat 13 scrap with Richard Lawson and Ben Barker. Rathbone said: “We keep fully in touch with Ulrich and we support him in what he’s doing. “We all know his scores since he’s come back haven’t been up to the level that we, or he, expect and he’s working hard on the bike to sort things out. “He was out for a long time, but there were glimpses on Sunday that he’s on the way back, and hopefully that will be even more the case this weekend.” Panthers travel to Rye House for the first leg of the Championship Shield semi-final against Lakeside on Saturday (7pm) before hosting the return at the East of England Arena on Sunday (5pm).

No Steve he doesn't.